New England Weather As A Lesson To Content Marketers

Mark Twain said it best, “If you don’t like the weather in New England now, just wait a few minutes.”

As a New England native, I can attest to the claim that the weather in this region is some of the most unpredictable and continuously changing weather in the country. From blizzards, to heat waves, to tornadoes, New Englanders are prepared to handle any type of weather that is thrown their way.

Sure, it’s not particularly thrilling to hear that there’ll be a snow storm on Halloween when only the leaves should be covering our lawns, but the weather sure keeps residents on their toes. It also teaches us to savor every season for what it’s worth—the dew covered grass of springtime, the humid days of summer, the classic crisp autumn mornings when the foliage is at its peak, or the first sign of powdery flakes once December arrives.

But why the heck am I going on about the weather? Well, the four distinct New England seasons and its variant weather patterns can show content marketers how to always maintain a fresh perspective.

Whether your creative well has run dry when drafting monthly editorial calendars or you’re stumped trying to craft a perfectly precise and witty email subject line—changing your perspective in order to invigorate your strategy is invaluable.

As such, here a few lessons marketers can take away from New England’s ever changing weather to add some much needed zest to a complacent content marketing strategy:

Do something unexpected: Sometimes there’s an 80-degree day in the middle of October and sometimes there is a snowstorm on April Fool’s day (except it’s not a joke at all). New Englander’s don’t expect to experience weather that is uncharacteristic to the current season. But, when it happens those days become landmarks in our memories. For instance, I’ll never forget the day the temperature reached 70 degrees during the second week of January—as it was a very unusual occurrence.

In this same way, marketers mustn’t be afraid to do something unexpected with their content strategies; it might be what makes the most impact on your consumers. Maybe your bread-and-butter is writing blogs and whitepapers, and these are the assets that you promote in your biweekly enewsletter. But after a while your consumers might become bored with your predictable content. So, next time experiment with a new content asset such as video. You’ll be surprised to see how high your email-open rates skyrocket by integrating a new, unexpected content asset.

Hone in on your unique characteristics: It’s the last day of August which means that autumn is now on the horizon. This is perhaps, New England’s most celebrated season due to its famous bold foliage, pumpkin carvings and serious dedication to all things Halloween related. Autumn’s unique characteristics are what make it such a beloved time of year for New Englanders, and when we think about this season we think about all of its unique characteristics.

Content marketers must keep this in mind when establishing their brand’s niche. It’s important to clearly illustrate your brand’s unique characteristics so that your consumers can celebrate them and see them as differentiators between you and your top competitors. For instance, maybe your brand is dedicated to staying true to its local roots. As such, make sure you build upon this in all of your marketing campaigns—through writing about local places and events, for instance—as this will help you own it as your specific characteristic that your competitors won’t be able to touch. After all, an autumn spent in Southern California doesn’t hold a candle to one spent in New England.

It might feel like being as consistent as possible is what your readers want and expect from you, but being consistent—without any deviation—becomes boring. If your click-through rates, website traffic, or search engine rankings are dropping, it might be time for a seasonal change to your content strategy.

Whether skydiving in Interlaken or free falling into hot oil pizza from Colony Grille, Diana Bishop knows a thing or two about adventure. After graduating from Keene State College with a Bachelor’s Degree in English, she has used her experiences while studying abroad in Barcelona to inject fresh perspective into her work at Content Boost. Admittedly “artsy” by nature, she enjoys painting and drawing whenever she has free time on her hands. Before she joined the team at Content Boost she organized promotions and wrote commercial copy for iHeartMedia, a global entertainment and media company.